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Would you be building for fun or to save money?
If you're doing it for the experience, go for it.
If you're doing it to try to get a jazz box inexpensively, I'll second what others have said, just scout around for a low-end model. I think you'd wind up spending as much or more on supplies as a budget "storebought" guitar would cost. And unless you already have some knowledge of what you're doing, you may not like what you wind up with.
But the main thing is that just in the last few years there's been an explosion of very playable low-end archtops. Ibanez Artcore, DeArmond, Epiphone and others. You can get a used 17" archtop with a floating pickup and 25.5" scale like the Epiphone Emperor Regent on Ebay for $400~$500 US. There are even new Ibanez models that are selling for less than that.
As recently as five or six years ago, decent quality budget archtops were hard to find. But since then, several manufacturers have figured out that there's a market for them and have responded accordingly. Best of luck, CS
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